Text/Xiaomeng Pavilion Master

Every Chinese New Year, every household will put a big word \”福\” on the doors and windows of their homes to welcome the Spring Festival and receive blessings. This custom has a long history and has existed since ancient times. In ancient times, it was called \”posting spring cards\”. Generally, people stick \”positive blessings\” on their doors and \”bad blessings\” on windows, rice vats, stoves, etc. at home.

Every year everyone plays \”Five Blessings\”, but do you know what \”Five Blessings\” are? The five blessings are longevity, wealth, health, tranquility, and family harmony. The ancients called it the \”Five Blessings\”.

There is also a myth and legend about pasting the word \”blessing\”, and there is also a god of stars who is in charge of blessing, which later evolved into \”blessing from heavenly officials\”.

The legend of posting blessings to drive away poverty

Posting the word \”Fu\” before the Spring Festival is said to be related to Jiang Ziya\’s canonization of gods. According to legend, when Jiang Ziya was on the canonization stage to confer a god, and when he reached the 364th position, his deceased wife Ma came and scolded Jiang Ziya for being heartless and asking for a godship at any cost. When Jiang Ziya saw his deceased wife Shamelessly, I remembered that when I was unsuccessful, Ma looked down on me, so I said to Ma, \”You are You are a prodigal. The gods have been sealed, and the only one left is the Poor God. If you want, I can make you the Poor God.\” When Ma refused, he shouted: \”The Poor God is like a broom star. , I am disliked by people everywhere, how can I settle down?\” Jiang Ziya smiled and said, \”Well, you can\’t go anywhere without the word \”Fu\”.Wherever you want. \”So, there are poor people everywhere in the world, and the god of poverty is everywhere. In order to prevent the god of poverty from visiting their doors, every household puts a big word \”福\” on the door during the New Year to refuse The introduction of the poor god has become a custom over time, and its meaning has also changed from the initial \”rejecting the poor to the introduction\” to \”welcoming the spring and receiving blessings\”

The Ancient God of Stars, Fortune

The ancients believed that there was a God of Stars in the vast sky who was responsible for the blessings of all people. He is the star of fortune. Jupiter was regarded as the star of fortune in ancient times, and was also called the \”Star of the Year\” or the Star of Tai Sui. It is said in \”Divination\” that\”The stars of the year bring blessings to the people\”

During the Kaiyuan period of the Tang Dynasty, there was a picture called \”Five Stars and Twenty-eight Constellations\”, which depicts this. The shape of the five stars of metal, wood, water, fire, earth and twenty-eight constellations, among which the head of the stars is the lucky star (Jupiter). The image of the lucky star is like a tiger but not a tiger, with leopard eyes. , long robe, sitting cross-legged on the back of a big wild boar. This is the earliest image of a lucky star.

Because Jupiter has two roles, it can bring blessings and disasters, so people still worship him cautiously. Later, the lucky star gradually changed from a natural god to a personality god, and his image no longer looked like a beast. The star depicts the sky as full and the earth as round, and the image of a kind-hearted old man.

In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the reputation of \”blessings from heavenly officials\” introduced by Taoism became more and more popular, completely replacing it. The lucky star has become an upgraded version of the lucky star, which is the image of the lucky star we see now. The origin of blessings from heavenly officials can be traced back to the late Eastern Han Dynasty.

Blessings from Heavenly Officials and the Three Officials Emperor

At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Heavenly Master Zhang Daoling founded Tianshi Dao (Five Pecks of Rice Dao), which transformed heaven and earth into water. Three types of nature worship incorporated into Taoist teachings Among them, three gods were created: Tianguan, Diguan, and Shuiguan, namely the three emperors. The Tianguan is named Shangyuan Yipin Blessing Tianguan Ziwei Emperor, and the Diguan is named Zhongyuan Yipinshe. The official name of the official of the guilty place is Qingxu Emperor, and the Shuiguan name is the Xiayuan third-level Jie\’e Shuiguan Dongyin Emperor When Zhang Tianshi treated the refugees in Shu, one of the important rituals was to ask Emperor Sanguan to bless everyone, forgive sins, and relieve misfortune. The specific ritual was: writing the patient\’s name and confession in yellow. Write the document on paper in triplicate and submit one copy to the Heavenly Official , put it on the top of the mountain; give one to the earth official and bury it in the ground; give one to the water official and put it into the water, which is called the \”handwritten letter of the three officials\”, that is,the heaven official grants blessings, the earth official forgives sins, and Shuiguan eliminates bad luck

The people in Sichuan have deep faith in the Three Officials, especially the blessings from the Heavenly Officials. Over time, the blessings from the Heavenly Officials have become a belief that everyone prays for in the New Year. On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, people will pray for blessings from the heavenly officials.

The image of the lucky star becomes the heavenly official, and the people. The image of Tianguan Lucky Star is a person wearing a Ruyi-winged prime minister hat, a splendid red dragon robe, a jade belt around his waist, and holding a jade Ruyi in his arms. There are eight mascots around him, namely \”jue, deer, bat, magpie, horse, ingot, Bottle, saddle\”, which means \”Jueluolufuxi, horse brings peace\”.

In the folk, the lucky star is listed together with the lucky star, the longevity star, the happy star, and the god of wealth, and is called the five-star high shine, which means happiness, wealth, longevity, and happiness. Wealth, five fortunes are complete!

Follow and like, in the next Spring Festival series of articles we will talk about the God of Joy that we are not familiar with in the five-star photo~